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GamesRadar
GamesRadar
Technology
Anthony McGlynn

Xbox pledges to help anyone who's lost their account to hackers "as quickly as possible" after one fan went viral for almost losing thousands of euros' worth of games

Xbox.

After someone almost lost all their games and everything in their OneDrive due to Microsoft's data protection policies, Xbox is now actively helping others who've had their accounts compromised. The company has put out an open call for anyone who's somehow locked out of their library to reach out for a potential remedy.

Just last week, streamer Joshua Khane found himself in an extremely frustrating position. He contacted Microsoft over unauthorized access to his information, and the official response was to lock him out of his games and whatever he kept on his OneDrive, which included precious family photos.

Angry and desperate, he posted about this on social media, leading to enough uproar that the corporation took another look and was able to restore his access. In the wake of this, Xbox is now dealing with people who had the same problems but never got another look.

"Everyone we responded to should have a DM from us with next steps, just reply there and we'll continue from where we left off," the official Xbox support Twitter account posted. "If you're also dealing with this account recovery issue, our DMs are open, reach out and we'll help as quickly as possible."

I'm going to guess there's now a substantial queue, quite a bit longer than usual, in the green-tinted console's inboxes. What happened to Khane could happen to anyone with a Microsoft account, and where his story got traction, there are likely plenty of others with similar complaints who didn't.

In a follow-up video about his accounts being sorted out, Khane mentions that although the wording for the reply he got made the situation sound definitive, it turns out that wasn't necessarily true.

"What bothers me the most is that they were telling me that it was irreversible," he says. "It's just unfortunate that such a big company can bring back your account if you ask them to. The way it all went is really, to me, it's a little bit shady, because it's not that they can't bring back your account, it's that they won't bring back your account if you're a nobody."

Whether or not the support teams can help each individual person is another question, but at least there's now potential for users to get a better outcome.

"Don't fall for it": Union says Fallout 5 and Elder Scrolls 6 news shouldn't distract you from huge Bethesda layoffs as Xbox CEO praises the series' "remarkable" achievements

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